Music City North’s Jeannie Reid Creating Festival Opportunities for Indie Artists in Canada
May 17, 2018
Jeannie Reid is not a musician--but she knows great music, and she has a passion for promoting great artists. It has become her mission to help independent musicians find an audience to share their art--and she's now moving from her roots in Toronto out into the larger Canadian live music community with a brand new initiative--taking Music City North's flagship festival series - "Soundtrack Of The City" - on the road!
LUI: How did you come about becoming a promoter and event producer?
REID: Funny thing... I went through a brutal breakup and wanted a change in my life. So, I looked for something new to volunteer with because I have always believed that everyone should volunteer their time to something they are passionate about. That's when I saw a posting for stage managers for a festival and I decided that was it. I had been wanting to produce my own festival for a while and have been organizing events since high school. I worked with this festival for two years, then branched off on my own. Started out with managing a band, and producing a show a month and plans to do one festival. That quickly blossomed to 27 shows in one month (too much!) and 6 festivals the first year. Took me some time to fully grasp what I wanted to do with Music City North and my life.
LUI: What inspires you most about Canada’s indie music scene?
REID: The people, the music. When I was in high school, I actually helped a friends band promote their shows. Completely forgot about that til I told him that I started Music City North and he said, "makes sense". Really did/does. Personally, I have zero talent for reading music, playing instruments or singing, but music is in me.
Like so many people, a song brings back vivid memories, it can cheer me up, comfort me, get me through tough times, keep my mood upbeat. It also makes me cry, a lot, and makes my skin tingle. Hearing certain songs, artists, bands makes all of my senses and my being come alive.
For as long as I can remember, I have been the type of person who loves to organize things, and for even longer, I have been an emotional creature when it comes to music. The biggest thing for me is doing what I love and then adding in the connections with like-minded people, who a lot of the time become friends, it just all makes perfect sense to me.
LUI: Tell us about your project ‘Soundtrack Of The City’ — what inspired you to launch this festival series?
REID: Soundtrack of the City kind of evolved. At first it was just titled after the areas that we were in: Music City North: Queen St Festival, Music City North: Kensington Festival, etc. But, after time I realized that the company was starting to do much more than the festivals and that it could be confusing. So, I wanted to make things clear and to give the festival a life of its own.
Festivals such as CMW and NXNE are great at what they do and bring so much to the city, however the everyday music scene is overlooked. The smaller venues and indie artists tend to get overshadowed by the larger venues/artists, and I wanted something to contribute to the bars that make up Toronto's Music Scene.
That's where Soundtrack of the City comes into play. We focus on the block of Queen to College, Bathurst to Spadina and pretty much use the same venues all of the time. Pretty loyal to the venues that I use because I love them and love working with them.
LUI: We all understand that the music industry has shifted from the traditional big label gatekeepers to the open source internet - how do indie artists get heard through all this new noise out there?
REID: This may be a bit harsh, especially given how much I just have gone on about how much I love the music scene and the people, but the way artists are going to be heard is to create content that is great. Not just good, but great. There are a lot of artists out there that are great people, but their content is mediocre. The other thing is, it is a DIY world now and unfortunately, a lot of artists have the creative part down, but not the business side.
One thing I see a LOT is bands relying on one person to basically run everything. Some bands don't even have that one person. It takes a lot of hard work and the key thing is to know what the strengths are of each person and to utilize them.
Divide things up equally, so that your band has longevity. Something I see all the time is bands breaking up for these reasons. Internal fights that should and could be avoided.
LUI: What does the future hold for Music City North?
REID: The main goal is to ensure that each venue, is full each night for the festivals. People often say that the festival will grow when I tell them it's a small festival. I don't want it to. There are already a few larger festivals. The idea of having an indie festival for the indie artists and smaller venues FOUR times a year, is exactly what I want and not more.
We also work with a select amount of artists to do weekend or full tours for them. Getting picky about this as it is a lot of work for little pay, for any of us. But, it's a necessity for artists that want to actually branch out of Toronto and to grow. And, I guess this will be the formal announcement, but in August of this year, we are taking Soundtrack of the City on the road.
The weekend of August 9-11, we are hosting the festival in 15 different cities from here to Halifax! First time that we are doing this and are keeping it small for now as it is the first venture for this. Excited and a little bit of "Jeannie, are you nuts?!" going on. I'm actually pretty confidant in this as I know the venues I am dealing with, will have a person in each city that I know and trust, and have some amazing bands playing.
Will have more info on this coming up soon, so people will have to pay attention to our social media. It's going to be bloody awesome!
LUI: Who are your favourite Canadian artists of all time and why?
REID: Ever since high school, I have been a Canadian music girl. Of my all-time favourite artists, most of them are Canadian. The Tragically Hip are and always will be my favourite. Others include, Barenaked Ladies, The Grapes of Wrath, Walk off The Earth, The Arkells, 54-40, Sarah Mclachlan, Jann Arden. Plus, I have a couple of favourite indie artists from Toronto that I love: Big Otter Creek, Streetlight Social, The Honeyrunners and Stuck on Planet Earth. I could go on forever, but those are my faves!
by Jacqueline Auguste: the editor of ListenUpIndie! and lead singer of the Canadian rock band, ACROSS THE BOARD.
From www.MusicCityNorth.ca:
“OUR MISSION-We are artist driven – with the best interest of artists in mind, we create shows and festivals that will build a more vibrant live music scene in Toronto. We will become, Music City North.“